Background and Relevant Art
Computers and computing systems have affected nearly every aspect of modern living. Computers are generally involved in work, recreation, healthcare, transportation, entertainment, household management, etc.
Further, computing system functionality can be enhanced by a computing system's ability to be interconnected to other computing systems via network connections. Network connections may include, but are not limited to, connections via wired or wireless Ethernet, cellular connections, or even computer to computer connections through serial, parallel, USB, or other connections. The connections allow a computing system to access services at other computing systems and to quickly and efficiently receive application data from other computing system.
Interconnected computing systems can often be used as a distributed system, where nodes (i.e., individual computing systems) in the distributed system work together to perform a coordinated computing task. Some systems allow nodes in a distributed system to vote on whether or not to perform an action. A quorum is the minimum number of votes needed to allow a proposed action to be performed by the distributed system. A typical quorum is a number of nodes that is a majority of configured nodes for the distributed system. However, if the number of active nodes in a distributed computing system falls below the number needed for a quorum, the distributed computing system may be made unable to perform any meaningful functions. While the distributed computing system may have sufficient resources to perform functions, the inability to achieve a quorum would render the distributed system unable to come to an agreement as to any functions.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.